• Site map
• About us
• K-State photo services
• Stock photos
• Inclement weather policy

 

 

Join us on facebook

 

 

Media Relations
Kansas State University
9 Anderson Hall
Manhattan, KS 66506
785-532-6415
media@k-state.edu

Information provided by K-State Media Relations, K-State's news service, may be reproduced without permission. The marks and names of Kansas State University are protected trademarks and may not be used in any commercial or private endeavor without the approval of the university.

Source: Michael Smith, 785-532-0869, mrs5268@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Megan Wilson, 785-532-6415, media@k-state.edu

Friday, Oct. 17, 2008

K-STATE PSYCHOLOGY STUDENTS PRESENT AT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

MANHATTAN -- Graduate students in psychology at Kansas State presented a research poster at the third International Conference on Occupational Health, Sept. 1-4, in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.

The students presented "Factor Analysis and Construct Validity for a Vigorous Well-Being Measure," a poster on assessing workplace engagement. Workplace engagement refers to motivational and attitudinal reactions that lead to greater levels of connection in the workplace environment.

Ron Downey, professor of psychology at K-State, led the research group.

K-State students who were part of the research group, all graduate students in psychology, include:

Neena Gopalan, Michael Smith and Andrew Wefald, all of Manhattan; and Dianne Whitney, Topeka.

Assessing workplace engagement presents many challenges, Smith said.

"When employees are highly engaged with their work and with their work environment, the result is high levels of physical, cognitive and emotional energy toward the fulfillment of organizational outcomes," he said.

"The assessment of workplace engagement has become problematic in the literature. One difficulty commonly cited is the high levels of conceptual overlap between workplace engagement and other workplace attitudes such as job satisfaction, job involvement and organizational commitment," Smith said. "This presents a challenge for organizations who want to know how workplace engagement uniquely contributes to outcomes such as decreasing turnover, increasing profit and increasing overall organizational well-being."

The goal of the research was to identify a measure by which to assess workplace engagement.

"Our research supported that one measure of workplace engagement, the Shirom-Melamed Vigor Measure, provides an effective method to assess the unique contributions of workplace engagement to the fulfillment of organizational outcomes," Smith said.